He would instruct the assessor to leave them a third or a quarter of the yield, excluding it from his assessment (1), because of the calamities that could befall the date palms. This assessment served to determine the zakat before the fruit was eaten and distributed (2), and to allow its owners to dispose of it as they wished while remaining liable for the amount of zakat due.
Likewise (3), he would send an assessor to those people of Khaybar with whom he had arrangements for tending orchards and cultivating fields (4). The assessor would estimate their fruit and crops and hold them liable for half the yield. He would send to oversee them (5) ‘Abd Allāh ibn Rawāhah. They wanted (6) to bribe him on one occasion (7), but ‘Abd Allāh said: “Would you feed me ill-gotten gains? By Allah, I have come to you from the person I love most, yet you are more hateful to me than
(1) Reported by Ahmad (15713, 16093, 16094), Abū Dāwūd (1605), al-Tirmidhī (642), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (2491) and al-Kubrā (2282), Ibn Khuzayma (2319, 2320), Ibn Hibbān (3280), and al-Hākim (1/402), from Sahl ibn Abī Hathma. Its chain includes ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mas‘ūd ibn Niyār, whose status is unknown. Al-Hāfiz offered no comment on him in al-Fath (3/274). Al-Albānī graded the hadith as weak in Da‘īf Abī Dāwūd—al-Umm (10/115). Al-Hākim said: “It has a supporting report, with a chain agreed to be sound, stating that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb ordered this.”
(2) The printed edition reads: wa-tusram (“and harvested”), contrary to the manuscripts.
(3) The printed edition reads: wa-li-dhālika (“and therefore”), contrary to the manuscripts.
(4) ص reads: wa-zāra‘ūhu (“and they entered into a sharecropping agreement with him”). ك reads: w-zrā‘h.
(5) The printed edition reads: ilayhim (“to them”). The adopted reading follows the manuscripts.
(6) Folio 48 of manuscript م begins here, following a large lacuna that began midway through the first part.
(7) Marratan (“on one occasion”) is absent from ق, ب, م, and مب.